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Jumping The Gun

by John Collorafi

In his epic work, The Whole Truth About Fatima, Volume III, Frère Michel de la Sainte Trinité shows that even legitimate Fatima experts have had a disturbing tendency to announce the conversion of Russia as imminent. These premature predictions have generated false optimism, wasted precious time and energy, and even tended to discredit Fatima, because they consistently failed to come true.

We have pointed out, thousands of times, how Our Lord promised Sister Lucia that the Immaculate Heart of Mary would save Russia, because Russia has been entrusted to Her. When Sister Lucia asked Our Lord why He would not convert Russia without the solemn and public consecration by the Pope and bishops, He replied in these words:

"Because I want My whole Church to recognize that consecration as a triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, so as to extend its cult later on and to place devotion to this Immaculate Heart beside the devotion to My Sacred Heart."

Before all the Council Fathers gathered at the Second Vatican Council on November 21st 1964 Pope John Paul VI consecrated the 'world' to the Immaculate Heart so as not to contravene the terms of the Vatican-Moscow Agreement which subsequently Luis has proven to be morally unacceptable. As such then he did not Consecrate Russia by Name. All the Popes from Plus XI in 1929 have failed to Consecrate Russia specifically. Our present Holy Father has publicly acknowledged that he too has yet to obey Our Lady of Fatima in this regard. It is only this act of obedience which will deliver the whole world from otherwise certain Communist enslavement. But even after this Act in 1964 (as on subsequent occasions) 'wishful thinking' persons have claimed that Our Lady's request was obeyed and that Russia was converted when in fact Russia has continued to enslave, torture and kill millions since 1964.

Many Fatima experts, in the past, tended to ignore this condition set by Our Lord Himself for the conversion of Russia. Perhaps they thought that the conversion of Russia could be obtained through ordinary prayers and sacrifices, or that the consecration of the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary was sufficient. There were inaccurate texts of the Secret of Fatima circulating, which tended to support this false idea.

Frère Michel records a number of these blunders by the Fatima experts in his third Volume.* For example, in October 1951 Canon Barthas maintained that the Blessed Virgin had been "building world peace" since 1945. John Haffert wrote in a similar vein in his book, Russia Will Be Converted, in 1951, and of course maintained this optimism well into the eighties.

* Toute La Vérité Sur Fatima, Vol. III p. 212 sq., p. 292 sq.

The same year, Bishop Fulton Sheen declared that Communism was defeated on October 13, 1951, but that the news hadn't leaked out yet ...

Apparently the news never did "leak out" to Joseph Stalin, who continued his bloody reign right up until his death, in 1953. Nor did the news "leak out" to the millions who continued to perish in the Gulag ...

Unfortunately, there is more to this sad story. We have seen that on July 7, 1952, Pope Pius XII made an act of consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Sister Lucia privately confided that it was "incomplete", because the bishops had not taken part.

Fatima experts began to use this act of Pius XII to prove that Our Lady's prophecies were being fulfilled. Writing in December 1955, Canon Barthas declared:

"Since Pius XII fulfilled the prophecy of Mary (sic) — 'The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to Me' — ... the spirit of domination and methods of intimidation are less accentuated in the rulers of the Kremlin (sic) and they are agreeing to negotiate with the leaders of other nations."<

Canon Barthas went on to cite "the numerous indications of peaceful coexistence and even of rapprochement (sic!) between East and West ..."

Keep in mind that Russia had just exploded its first hydrogen bomb, two years previously! Where was the evidence of the great era of peace, promised by Our Lady? According to Canon Barthas, it was the Geneva conference of July 1955 (!!), which gave a "precious example of fraternization" (sic!) between East and West.

These blunders were bad enough. But surely, the bloody suppression of the Hungarian revolt in 1956 — wouldn't this set the experts straight? Wouldn't this end the fatuous predictions about the imminent conversion of Russia ...?

Well, no. Canon Barthas continued to maintain:

"One can say that already the 'conversion' of Russia has begun (sic!) because the Cominform has been suppressed, ... the Holy Father is no longer insulted in the Russian press ..." etc.

Gilbert Renault, alias Colonel Rémy, wrote in a similar vein, in Fatima 1917-1957. The murder of the freedom fighters in Hungary? Oh, that was just the last gasp of the beast which didn't want to die ...

These Fatima "bloopers" would be almost comical if they had not had such tragic consequences for human souls. What we have related should be sufficient to show that Our Lord meant what He said when He asked for a solemn act of reparation, and consecration of Russia to the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary.

Scripture tells us that "Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today, and forever." (Heb. 13:8) He does not change His requests according to our human caprices.